Film
The month’s attractions include movies from directors Darren Aronofsky and Frank Capra—a yin/yang combo if there ever was one, and Marwencol, an intriguing documentary about a man who creates a fantasy world in his backyard. By Justin Marble.
Read MoreBut The Image in Question begs a crucial question: Isn’t modern media supposed to be flashy, colorful, and loud beyond all sane toleration? Aren’t shrill, unceasing proclamations a part of what drives some individuals away from television and video-games to art galleries, the concert-hall, and the cinema? THE IMAGE IN QUESTION. WAR — MEDIA —…
Read MoreA Jewish film festival is at heart a communal event, even longer than Hanukkah. If one needs proof of community, see who the sponsors are. By Joann Green Breuer. My final film of this year’s Boston Jewish Film Festival was The Girl from a Reading Primer, directed by Edyta Wroblewska in Poland. It is short…
Read MoreAnd so I go, Jewish and glad to be, theatre director—maybe between gigs, old enough to believe that movies are best on the big screen among other (quiet) viewers and that you don’t have to be Jewish to love good Jewish movies. By Joann Green Breuer The danger of speaking critically of any ethnic art…
Read MoreOddly, not everyone is concerned with vampires. A friend tells me he finds them overdone, ornate, weighed down with baroque bells and whistles. His vote goes to zombies. I reply that zombies are one-trick monsters. They don’t even suck, only bite. That, he says, is what he likes about them; they are stripped down, perfect…
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Nick Prueher, together with his co-host Joe Pickett, is the founder and curator of the Found Footage Festival, a traveling show that takes the very worst of random VHS tapes and puts them all together into one two hour show. With the festival now in its fifth incarnation, Prueher took some time out from preparing…
Read MoreHowl, the film version of the story behind the poem “Howl,” is defeated by its own messy pretensions, faring best when it reflects the unselfconscious spirit of the poet, veering into chaos when it tries to do more than pay homage to its namesake. Reviewed by Dylan Rose. Howl comes off as a mixed bag.…
Read MoreBy Justin Marble. Waiting for Superman. Directed by Davis Guggenheim. At Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square Cinema through October. The new documentary from Davis Guggenheim, who previously directed An Inconvenient Truth, focuses on the slipping standards and gaping flaws in the American education system. Many have noted that test scores in America are well…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx Steamboat Bill Jr. is my personal favorite among Buster Keaton’s classic silent comedies, and the image (above) of Buster holding an upturned umbrella (this is a publicity still—in the movie he wields the useless brolly during a rampaging storm) is one of the movie’s greatest sight gags, an indelible image of the…
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Arts Feature: Best Movies (With Some Disappointments) of 2025